iMac G4 USB Issues

[scaart]

Hi, I have an imac G4, Version 10.4.11. It has been working fine for many years, now all of a sudden, after trying to connect an HD Video camera to the hub, the mouse stopped working. Ever since, every time I start up the mac, the mouse and keyboard wont work, if I reconnect the mouse to the keyboard, both mouse and keyboard will work. If I then try and connect a portable harddrive to the usb hub, the mouse and keyboard will not work again. Please can someone tell me what is going on! Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[CIA]

Seems like there might be a short in the hub. Is it a stand alone hub or the one in your keyboard?
I'd replace the hub first (they are cheap thankfully).

 

[scaart]

I have tried a different hub, and have the same problem. I have also started up the mac without the hub connected and still the same problem.

 

[CIA]

Does it happen with a different keyboard attached?

 

[scaart]

Tried a different keyboard as suggested, works fine when I turn on the mac, and the mouse works fine too. Looks like it could be the keyboard that was faulty, so thanks for that 🙂 Only prob now is that the portable harddrive will still not work, the mac just wont see it whether I connect the usb to the hub, or directly to the mac. When connected to a different mac (macbook) it appears straight away and everything on it can be accessed with no problems.

 

[fhall1]

Unless you have the very high end iMac G4, it's USB Bus is v1.1 not v2.0....maybe the external drive controller isn't backwards compatible with v1.1?

 

[scaart]

How do I find that out? I am currently looking on the system profiler under USB but cant see where it says the version. Just to point out though, the external drive was working fine with the imac for over a year.

 

[fhall1]

I believe the only iMac G4 that had USB 2.0 was the 1.25 GHz model. Anyway, since the drive worked for a year previously, that's not the issue.